Abstract
When it comes to the environment, the fashion industry’s poor track record is well documented. Fashion accounts for 20 to 35 percent of microplastic flows into the ocean, nearly 20 percent of wastewater, and about 10 percent of global emissions, outweighing the carbon footprint of international flights and shipping combined. The production of raw materials, spinning them into fibers, weaving fabrics and dyeing require enormous amounts of water, energy, and chemicals, including pesticides for growing raw materials such as cotton. To counter the far-reaching environmental impacts, upcycled fashion and the repurposing of waste material that would otherwise go to the landfill is an increasingly interesting product segment.
For more than 15 years, multi-award-winning fashion brand Elvis and Kresse have been working on a difficult problem: how to collect, sort, and transform waste textiles considered to be valueless, and transform them into desirable and profitable items. Having started out rescuing and repurposing London Fire House’s iconic red fire hoses, turning them into contemporary and evocative bags and accessories, the business has subsequently expanded to repurpose more than 12 materials that would otherwise go to landfill. These materials are utilized to create a wide range of items including a wide range of bags and technology cases, belts and accessories, and even homeware including rugs and benches. Since they are made from rescued materials, each item is unique and holds its own story. Focusing on the three pillars of their business — rescue, transform, and donate — Elvis & Kresse have saved over 200 tonnes of materials from landfills, contributing to circularity in fashion one handbag at a time.
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Overall Description
Multi award-winning fashion and lifestyle brand Elvis & Kresse did not begin with the intent of disrupting the fashion industry — their story began in 2004 in when Kresse Wesling, the charismatic company co-founder, began a pilgrimage around the UK’s network of industrial refuse and landfill sites trying to understand the sources of the countries 100 million tonnes of waste material. During a visit to London Fire Brigade, Kresse learnt that between 3 and 12 tonnes of decommissioned and damaged fire hose went straight to the city’s landfills each year.
Made from a sturdy construction consisting of a woven nylon core with a nitrile rubber jacket extruded through and around that core, firehose material is designed to be durable enough to withstand for decades, meaning that decomposition is both lengthy and difficult. But what could be done with a mountain of old hoses? They prototyped virtually everything — even roof tiles — before the lightbulb moment hit.
Elvis & Kresse launched in 2005, taking the cities entire waste stream of this brightly-colored, waterproof and extremely durable material and repurposing it into high quality, hand-crafted fashion and lifestyle accessories, including belts and handbags, whilst donating 50 percent of the profits from this collection to the Fire Fighters Charity. Though their hand-crafted products are labour intensive, this creates meaningful, living wage employment.
The brand gained fast recognition based on their sustainability. The fashion industry is notorious for its heavy environmental impact, accounting for 20 to 35 percent of microplastic flows into the ocean, nearly 20 percent of wastewater, and about 10 percent of global emissions, outweighing the carbon footprint of international flights and shipping combined. Virgin materials are a large contributor, with the production of raw materials, spinning them into fibres, weaving fabrics and dyeing requiring enormous amounts of water, energy and chemicals, including pesticides for growing raw materials such as cotton. Elvis & Kresse’s rescue and repurposing of waste material from unexpected sources is an innovative — and financially efficient — way of providing luxury fashion with a reduced environmental impact.
Transforming fire-hose to fashion: Shunning automation for an artisanal approach, a craftsman works to create stunning hand-crafted items from this unique material.
As demand for Elvis & Kresse’s products grew, and with the entirety of London’s fire hoses saved from landfill, they subsequently turned their attention to tackling the waste created in the production of leather goods. It is estimated that each year a staggering 800,000 tonnes of leather waste is produced by the global leather industry. Leather is extremely recyclable and once tanned, won’t biodegrade but high quality, unused, freshly tanned and dyed leather from the negative space in designs falls to the cutting room floor as seemingly unusable pieces.
Having come up with an innovative modular, interlocking leather system, ultising offcuts woven together in a jigsaw-like pattern that allowed for easy customization and infinite possibilities in relation to shape and size, they began making bags, rugs and upholstery. In 2017 they formed a 5-year partnership with the Burberry Foundation to scale their leather offerings and rescue at least 120 tonnes of luxurious Burberry leather. With this, Elvis & Kresse could really show the world the value of previously discarded offcuts, turning each tonne of industrial leather waste into products carrying roughly £100,000 of value.
However, leather is the tip of the iceberg — in the EU approximately 16 million tons of textile municipal solid waste was generated in 2015. 30 percent of textile waste is incinerated in a CO2-intensive process, and 70 percent of fashion waste ends up in landfills, which are especially harmful to the environment. Driven by a process that Kresse has dubbed ‘Backwards Design’ — led by finding waste material streams and then designing upcycled product around them (as opposed to designing the product first then sourcing suitable materials), Elvis & Kresse have expanded their range beyond firehose and Burberry textile offcuts to include products created from parachute silk, printing blanket, coffee sacks, shoe boxes, air traffic control flight strips, tea sacks and auction advertising banners.
This is not the end of Elvis & Kresse’s ambitious plans, and their current challenge is an open-source solar-powered forge costing less than $500 that can recycle some of the 56 million aluminium cans thrown away in the UK every year — something that could have an impact that reaches far beyond the fashion industry.
Main features or highliths
- All Elvis & Kresse products are created from nil-value waste streams otherwise destined for landfill, totalling over 200 tonnes of waste to date.
- Their first line was created with genuine decommissioned British fire hoses from various Fire Brigades across the UK. Between three and ten tonnes per year of the lustrous red or yellow material is used to create ultra-durable and aesthetically stunning bags and belts.
- Many other reclaimed materials are incorporated into their collections, most noticeably leather and printing blanket. The peripherals are made with reclaimed materials: coffee sacks, reclaimed closed-cell foam, old auction banners, used tea sacks and waste parachute silk for lining their bags and wallets.
- All of their packaging is made from reclaimed materials. The string on their tags is made from coffee sack, labels are made from flattened shoe box, and the materials for their mailing pouches and brochures come from hand-separated layers of tea sack.
- A modular approach is taken to utilize leather offcuts, using three interlocking shapes to assemble hides of infinite shapes, sizes and creative possibilities, creating a signature aesthetic.
- Elvis & Kresse rescues an estimated nine tonnes per month of leather waste from their current partner Burberry, turning each tonne of offcuts into products valuing approximately 100,000 pounds.
- Elvis & Kresse are powered entirely by renewable energy, helping to lower their carbon emissions and reduce their environmental impact.
- 50 percent of all profits are donated to charity. To date, donations have gone to the Fire Fighters Charity, Barefoot College, British Forces Foundation, The Costa Foundation and two coffee grower initiatives.
- To avoid anything going to landfill, the team endeavor to repair any of their products for customers where possible. In line with the principles of the circular economy, even after 25 years, they will gladly fix any items.
Why is this Revolutionary?
A simple solution to a big problem
The ‘Pulse of the Fashion Industry’ report, put together by the Boston Consulting Group and GFA, estimated that in 2015, the global textiles and clothing industry were responsible for the consumption of 79 billion cubic metres of water, 1715 million tons of CO2 emissions and 92 million tons of waste. It also estimated that without significant changes within the industry, these numbers would increase by at least 50 percent by 2030.
Huge amounts of waste are generated in the manufacturing process and reducing this waste can be relatively easy and bring significant economic benefits; reworking existing garments or fabrics doesn’t require virgin materials nor, in many cases, does it need cutting-edge technology. Focusing on using the materials that already exist in the world as a primary source limits the amount of chemicals, water and wastewater used in production. With a huge supply of unwanted raw material destined for landfill often available at almost no cost to a savvy entrepreneur, upcycling represents relatively low-hanging fruit in fashion’s quest to reduce its impact. Kresse Wesling has noted that “There is still millions and millions of tons of material all over the world that isn’t being cherished the way that it should. And that’s next.”.
A focus on multiple positive objectives
Not only do Elvis & Kresse rescue and upcycle tonnes of waste material destined for landfill, they are a certified Social Enterprise and a founding UK B Corp, a living wage employer, use renewable energy, make all their own packaging from reclaimed materials, offer apprenticeships, donate 50% of their profits to charity and serve on the board of waste related charity Keep Britain Tidy. Through their passion and dedication for solving crisis-level problems, and consistently working in an ethical and sustainable manner, they are contributing towards tackling three UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth, (9) Industry Innovation and Infrastructure and (12) Responsible Consumption and Production.
Ahead of the curve in an increasingly conscious market
In the fashion industry, scrutiny has been building. In February 2020, Extinction Rebellion protesters disrupted the opening of London Fashion Week, generating significant press coverage. Activist movements are making consumers increasingly aware of the environmental impact of fashion. According to a 2017 Unilever survey, one third of consumers prefer brands that show a commitment to environmental and social good.
Apparel companies are increasingly exploring and utilising circular models including the recycling and upcycling of textiles, and European consumers are increasingly conscious about fast fashion and sustainability issues within the industry. Although currently, only 1% of second-hand textiles are recycled into new clothes, the recycling trend is expected to accelerate.
In 2018, 32 companions in the fashion industry pledged to focus on sustainability and signed the ”Fashion Pact” introduced by French president Emmanuel Macron. It was a historic moment and signified a real commitment within the industry to tackle the environmental crisis head-on. Today, the pact has over 60 signatories. With increased focus on fashion’s sustainability problems, taking a ‘Backwards Design’ attitude to materials could be the key to success in an evolving landscape and companies like Elvis & Kresse, who build a business with circularity at heart, will be at an advantage.
Concrete Examples
Elvis & Kresse have won the 2014 IE Award for Sustainability in Luxury and the 2011 Cartier Women’s Intitiative Award with Kresse Wesling being named Laureate for Europe.
The Burberry Foundation announced the launch of a five-year partnership with Elvis & Kresse in 2017. Alongside at least 120 tonnes of leather offcuts from the production of Burberry products over this period for Elvis & Kresse to transform and sell, this partnership includes a yearly grant of £100,000 to cover the hiring of more apprentices into the business.
Elvis & Kresse approach design with minimal waste in mind; items in their fire hose range are sized to the width of the material, preventing negative space in designs and minimising textile offcuts. Their leather system is designed to be interlocking yet fully deconstructable, so that damaged pieces are easily repaired, and if desired the item can be completely repurposed into another design.
Elvis & Kresse have recently received a BTFE SME grant to cover the cost of academic support for their Solar Forge project, with the goal of hacking the industrial aluminium recycling process by designing/building testing and open-sourcing a small scale renewably powered forge priced at under $500. If successful, the impacts of this project will stretch beyond the fashion industry.
Elvis & Kresse are one of the few luxury fashion brands that create jobs by hiring artisans instead of scaling through automation. All of their products are hand-made either in their workshop in Kent, UK or in their manufacturing site in Istanbul, Turkey. They claim that all of their staff are paid very well and they don’t accept any sort of discrimination in the workplace nor do they believe in treating anyone unfairly.
Overall, Elvis & Kresse have rescued over 200 tonnes of waste from landfill to date, yet this still barely makes a dent on the wider problem.
Links, related resources, people behind
Elvis & Kresse Website: https://www.elvisandkresse.com/
Kresse Wesling Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kresse-wesling-mbe-0933646/
B Corp Summit 2018, talk from Kresse Wesling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xFplJJs1SQ&feature=emb_title
Pulse of the Fashion Industry 2019 Report: http://media-publications.bcg.com/france/Pulse-of-the-Fashion-I ndustry2019.pdf
UK Statistics on waste: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/sys tem/uploads/attachment_data/file/918270/UK_Statistics_on_Waste_statistical_notice_March_2020_accessible_FINAL_updated_si ze_12.pdf
Article by: Daniella-Louise Bourne, 4REVS researcher (and more)
